The original Interment Records are the property of
Metropolitan Governmental Archives, Nashville. The
earliest records of burials, between 1822–1846, were lost
during the Civil War years. A project to transcribe all
the data in the Interment Records (1846-1979) of the
20,000 people buried in the cemetery was completed.
CLICK HERE to view the Interment Book records hosted by Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee.

Some instructions that may be of use:

To Find a Name: Go to the search feature in the upper right of the screen (magnifying glass-find in this dataset) Click on space and type in name, either First and Last or just Last name. Hit the enter key to search.

The dataset and search features have been customized for the Interment Books by
Houston Runion, CBCP,
Division Manager – Web Based Services, Nashville Government, who has also prepared these instructions. Please email us at info@thenashvillecitycemetery.org with any questions and/or problems you might have about this new format.

The new site uses custom filters to search for entries, rather than just a simple search box, as you may have encountered with the previous version. You can use the Filter by clicking the blue Filter graphic at the top right of the page, as you will note in the PDF referenced above. A person can set up a seemingly unlimited number of filter layers, all based on the different fields in the table. An example might be to show all Black Women Over 50 who died in 1870, or all people less than 2 years old who died from teething. The Interment Book Records become REALLY useful in terms of how it can be looked at now.

The original lot cards are now available in the digital data developed by the Nashville Public Library. These were developed long after the actual burials in many case, and the accuracy is not guaranteed. However, this is another excellent resource in the attempts to locate all possible interments. CLICK HERE to access an alphabetic listing of these cards – the database can be reindexed, if you wish, to be in other configurations.

Alphabetical and Chronological Listings From Interment Books

If you only have an approximation of the name or of
the date of interment, you can access the complete
listing of these books indexed by date and by name. CLICK HERE for chronological date index, and CLICK HERE for index by last name.

Please visit our explanation page on
on definitions, diseases, and other historical
connections,, including a glossary of terms and
mortuary history ontheGlossary and Information page to
help you understand your findings on the following
links.

A researcher combing files in the National Archives discovered these long-lost Tennessee records, and the TSLA contracted with the National Archives to create a copy on microfilm. The next step was a transcription and database project for the "burial sheets." TSLAFriends offered to seek funds. The first donation came from Nashville City Cemetery Association and later other individual donors to underwrite the project.